LIBRARY 

OF  TIIK 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

GIKT    OK 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALS WORTH. 

Received  October,  1894. 

x.     n-w}'?. 
sAcce&swns  No. 


JAMES  A.  GARFIELD. 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESS 


PRONOUNCED   IN   THE 


HALL   OF   REPRESENTATIVES, 

FEBRUARY  27,  1882, 

BEFORE  THE  DEPARTMENTS  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF 
THE  UNITED  STA  TES, 


JAMES  G.  BLAINE, 


IN  RESPONSE  TO  AN  INVITATION  FROM  THE 
TWO  HOUSES  OF  CONGRESS. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    OFFICE, 
1882. 


UNIVERSITY 

OF 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESS. 


Mr.  PRESIDENT:  For  the  second  time  in 
this  generation  the  great  departments  of 
the  Government  of  the  United  States  are 
assembled  in  the  Hall  of  Representatives 
to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  a  murdered 
President.  Lincoln  fell  at  the  close  of 
a  mighty  struggle  in  which  the  passions 
of  men  had  been  deeply  stirred.  The 
tragical  termination  of  his  great  life  added 
but  another  to  the  lengthened  succession 
of  horrors  which  had  marked  so  many 
lintels  with  the  blood  of  the  first-born. 
GARFIELD  was  slain  in  a  day  of  peace, 
when  brother  had  been  reconciled  to 
brother,  and  when  anger  and  hate  had 
been  banished  from  the  land.  "  Whoever 
shall  hereafter  draw  the  portrait  of  murder, 
if  he  will  show  it  as  it  has  been  exhibited 


4 

where  such  example  was  last  to  have  been 
looked  for,  let  him  not  give  it  the  grim 
visage  of  Moloch,  the  brow  knitted  by 
revenge,  the  face  black  with  settled  hate. 
Let  'him  draw,  rather,  a  decorous,  smooth 
faced,  bloodless  demon;  not  so  much  an 
example  of  human  nature  in  its  depravity 
and  in  its  paroxysms  of  crime,  as  an 
infernal  being,  a  fiend  in  the  ordinary 
display  and  development  of  his  character." 


From  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Ply 
mouth  till  the  uprising  against  Charles  I., 
about  twenty  thousand  emigrants  came 
from  old  England  to  New  England.  As 
they  came  in  pursuit  of  intellectual  freedom 
and  ecclesiastical  independence  rather  than 
for  worldly  honor  and  profit,  the  emigra 
tion  naturally  ceased  when  the  contest  for 
religious  liberty  began  in  earnest  at  home. 
The  man  who  struck  his  most  effective 


5 

blow  for  freedom  of  conscience  by  sailing 
for  the  colonies  in  1620  would  have  been 
accounted  a  deserter  to  leave  after  1640. 
The  opportunity  had  then  come  on  the  soil 
of  England  for  that  great  contest  which 
established  the  authority  of  Parliament, 
gave  religious  freedom  to  the  people,  sent 
Charles  to  the  block,  and  committed  to  the 
hands  of  Oliver  Cromwell  the  supreme 
executive  authority  of  England.  The 
English  emigration  was  never  renewed, 
and  from  these  twenty  thousand  men, 
and  from  a  small  emigration  from  Scot 
land,  from  Ireland,  and  from  France,  are 
descended  the  vast  numbers  who  have 
New  England  blood  in  their  veins. 

In  1685  the  revocation  of  the  edicl  of 
Nantes  by  Louis  XIV.  scattered  to  other 
countries  four  hundred  thousand  Protest 
ants,  who  were  among  the  most  intelligent 
and  enterprising  of  French  subjects— 
merchants  of  capital,  skilled  manufadl- 


urers,  and  handicraftsmen,  superior  at  the 
time  to  all  others  in  Europe.  A  consider 
able  number  of  these  Huguenot  French 
came  to  America;  a  few  landed  in  New 
England  and  became  honorably  prominent 
in  its  history.  Their  names  have  in  large 
part  become  anglicized,  or  have  disap 
peared,  but  their  blood  is  traceable  in 
many  of  the  most  reputable  families,  and 
their  fame  is  perpetuated  in  honorable 
memorials  and  useful  institutions. 

From  these  two  sources,  the  English- 
Puritan  and  the  French-Huguenot,  came 
the  late  President — his  father,  Abram  Gar- 
field,  being  descended  from  the  one,  and 
his  mother,  Eliza  Ballou,  from  the  other. 

It  was  good  stock  on  both  sides — none 
better,  none  braver,  none  truer.  There 
was  in  it  an  inheritance  of  courage,  of  man 
liness,  of  imperishable  love  of  liberty,  of 
undying  adherence  to  principle.  GARFIELD 
was  proud  of  his  blood;  and,  with  as  much 


7 

satisfaction  as  if  he  were  a  British  noble 
man  reading  his  stately  ancestral  record  in 
Burke's  Peerage,  he  spoke  of  himself  as 
ninth  in  descent  from  those  who  would 
not  endure  the  oppression  of  the  Stuarts, 
and  seventh  in  descent  from  the  brave 
French  Protestants  who  refused  to  submit 
to  tyranny  even  from  the  Grand  Monarque. 
General  GARFIELD  delighted  to  dwell  on 
these  traits,  and,  during  his  only  visit  to  En 
gland,  he  busied  himself  in  searching  out 
every  trace  of  his  forefathers  in  parish  reg 
istries  and  on  ancient  army  rolls.  Sitting 
with  a  friend  in  the  gallery  of  the  House 
of  Commons,  one  night,  after  a  long  day's 
labor  in  this  field  of  research,  he  said,  with 
evident  elation,  that  in  every  war  in  which 
for  three  centuries  patriots  of  English  blood 
had  struck  sturdy  blows  for  constitutional 
government  and  human  liberty,  his  family 
had  been  represented.  They  were  at  Mars- 
ton  Moor,  at  Naseby,  and  at  Preston ;  they 


8 

were  at  Bunker  Hill,  at  Saratoga,  and  at 
Monmouth;  and  in  his  own  person  had 
battled  for  the  same  great  cause  in  the 
war  which  preserved  the  Union  of  the 
States. 

His  father  dying  before  he  was  two 
years  old,  GARFIELD'S  early  life  was  one 
of  privation,  but  its  poverty  has  been 
made  indelicately  and  unjustly  prominent. 
Thousands  of  readers  have  imagined  him 
as  the  ragged,  starving  child,  whose  reality 
too  often  greets  the  eye  in  the  squalid 
sections  of  our  large  cities.  General  GAR- 
FIELD'S  infancy  and  youth  had  none  of 
this  destitution,  none  of  these  pitiful  feat 
ures  appealing  to  the  tender  heart,  and  to 
the  open  hand,  of  charity.  He  was  a  poor 
boy  in  the  same  sense  in  which  Henry 
Clay  was  a  poor  boy;  in  which  Andrew 
Jackson  was  a  poor  boy;  in  which  Daniel 
Webster  was  a  poor  boy;  in  the  sense  in 
which  a  large  majority  of  the  eminent  men 


9 

of  America  in  all  generations  have  been 
poor  boys.  Before  a  great  multitude,  in 
a  public  speech,  Mr.  Webster  bore  this 
testimony: 

"  It  did  not  happen  to  me  to  be  born  in  a 
log  cabin,  but  my  elder  brothers  and  sisters 
were  born  in  a  log  cabin  raised  amid  the 
snow-drifts  of  New  Hampshire,  at  a  period 
so  early  that  when  the  smoke  rose  first  from 
its  rude  chimney  and  curled  over  the  frozen 
hills  there  was  no  similar  evidence  of  a 
white  man's  habitation  between  it  and  the 
settlements  on  the  rivers  of  Canada.  Its 
remains  still  exist.  I  make  to  it  an  annual 
visit.  I  carry  my  children  to  it  to  teach 
them  the  hardships  endured  by  the  genera 
tions  which  have  gone  before  them.  I  love 
to  dwell  on  the  tender  recollections,  the 
kindred  ties,  the  early  affedtions,  and  the 
touching  narratives  and  incidents  which 
mingle  with  all  I  know  of  this  primitive 
family  abode." 


IO 


With  the  requisite  change  of  scene  the 
same  words  would  aptly  portray  the  early 
days  of  GARFIELD.  The  poverty  of  the 
frontier,  where  all  are  engaged  in  a  com 
mon  struggle  and  where  a  common  sym 
pathy  and  hearty  co-operation  lighten  the 
burdens  of  each,  is  a  very  different  pov 
erty,  different  in  kind,  different  in  influ 
ence  and  effed;,  from  that  conscious  and 
humiliating  indigence  which  is  every  day 
forced  to  contrast  itself  with  neighboring 
wealth  on  which  it  feels  a  sense  of  grinding 
dependence.  The  poverty  of  the  frontier  is 
indeed  no  poverty.  It  is  but  the  beginning 
of  wealth,  and  has  the  boundless  possibili 
ties  of  the  future  always  opening  before  it. 
No  man  ever  grew  up  in  the  agricultural 
regions  of  the  West,  where  a  house-raising, 
or  even  a  corn-husking,  is  matter  of  com 
mon  interest  and  helpfulness,  with  any 
other  feeling  than  that  of  broad-minded, 
generous  independence.  This  honorable 


1 1 

independence  marked  the  youth  of  GAR- 
FIELD,  as  it  marks  the  youth  of  millions  of 
the  best  blood  and  brain  now  training  for 
the  future  citizenship  and  future  govern 
ment  of  the  Republic.  GARFIELD  was 
born  heir  to  land,  to  the  title  of  freeholder, 
which  has  been  the  patent  and  passport  of 
self-respecl  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
ever  since  Hengist  and  Horsa  landed  on 
the  shores  of  England.  His  adventure  on 
the  canal — an  alternative  between  that  and 
the  deck  of  a  Lake  Erie  schooner — was  a 
farmer  boy's  device  for  earning  money,  just 
as  the  New  England  lad  begins  a  possibly 
great  career  by  sailing  before  the  mast  on 
a  coasting  vessel,  or  on  a  merchantman 
bound  to  the  farther  India  or  to  the  China 
seas. 

No  manly  man  feels  anything  of  shame 
in  looking  back  to  early  struggles  with 
adverse  circumstances,  and  no  man  feels  a 
worthier  pride  than  when  he  has  conquered 


12 

the  obstacles  to  his  progress.  But  no  one 
of  noble  mould  desires  to  be  looked  upon 
as  having  occupied  a  menial  position,  as 
having  been  repressed  by  a  feeling  of  infe 
riority,  or  as  having  suffered  the  evils  of 
poverty  until  relief  was  found  at  the  hand 
of  charity.  General  GARFIELD'S  youth 
presented  no  hardships  which  family  love 
and  family  energy  did  not  overcome,  sub 
jected  him  to  no  privations  which  he  did 
not  cheerfully  accept,  and  left  no  memories 
save  those  which  were  recalled  with  delight, 
and  transmitted  with  profit  and  with  pride. 
GARFIELD'S  early  opportunities  for  secur 
ing  an  education  were  extremely  limited, 
and  yet  were  sufficient  to  develop  in  him 
an  intense  desire  to  learn.  He  could  read 
at  three  years  of  age,  and  each  winter  he 
had  the  advantage  of  the  district  school. 
He  read  all  the  books  to  be  found  within 
the  circle  of  his  acquaintance;  some  of 
them  he  got  by  heart.  While  yet  in  child- 


13 

hood  he  was  a  constant' student  of  the 
Bible,  and  became  familiar  with  its  litera 
ture.  The  dignity  and  earnestness  of  his 
speech  in  his  maturer  life  gave  evidence 
of  this  early  training.  At  eighteen  years 
of  age  he  was  able  to  teach  school,  and 
thenceforward  his  ambition  was  to  obtain 
a  college  education.  To  this  end  he  bent 
all  his  efforts,  working  in  the  harvest  field, 
at  the  carpenter's  bench,  and,  in  the  winter 
season,  teaching  the  common  schools  of 
the  neighborhood.  While  thus  laboriously 
occupied  he  found  time  to  prosecute  his 
studies,  and  was  so  successful  that  at 
twenty-two  years  of  age  he  was  able  to 
enter  the  junior  class  at  Williams  College, 
then  under  the  presidency  of  the  venerable 
and  honored  Mark  Hopkins,  who,  in  the 
fullness  of  his  powers,  survives  the  emi 
nent  pupil  to  whom  he  was  of  inestimable 
service. 

The  history  of  GARFIELD'S  life  to  this 


14 

period  presents  no  novel  features.  He 
had  undoubtedly  shown  perseverance,  self- 
reliance,  self-sacrifice,  and  ambition — qual 
ities  which,  be  it  said  for  the  honor  of  our 
country,  are  everywhere  to  be  found  among 
the  young  men  of  America.  But  from  his 
graduation  at  Williams  onward,  to  the  hour 
of  his  tragical  death,  GARFIELD'S  career  was 
eminent  and  exceptional.  Slowly  working 
through  his  educational  period,  receiving 
his  diploma  when  twenty-four  years  of  age, 
he  seemed  at  one  bound  to  spring  into 
conspicuous  and  brilliant  success.  Within 
six  years  he  was  successively  President  of 
a  College,  State  Senator  of  Ohio,  Major 
General  of  the  Army  of  the  United  States, 
and  Representative-  elecl;  to  the  National 
Congress.  A  combination  of  honors  so 
varied,  so  elevated,  within  a  period  so 
brief  and  to  a  man  so  young,  is  without 
precedent  or  parallel  in  the  history  of  the 
country. 


15 

GARFIELD'S  army  life  was  begun  with  no 
other  military  knowledge  than  such  as  he 
had  hastily  gained  from  books  in  the  few 
months  preceding  his  march  to  the  field. 
Stepping  from  civil  life  to  the  head  of  a 
regiment,  the  first  order  he  received  when 
ready  to  cross  the  Ohio  was  to  assume 
command  of  a  brigade,  and  to  operate  as 
an  independent  force  in  Eastern  Kentucky. 
His  immediate  duty  was  to  check  the 
advance  of  Humphrey  Marshall,  who  was 
marching  down  the  Big  Sandy  with  the 
intention  of  occupying,  in  connection  with 
other  Confederate  forces,  the  entire  territory 
of  Kentucky,  and  of  precipitating  the  State 
into  secession.  This  was  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1861.  Seldom,  if  ever,  has  a 
young  college  professor  been  thrown  into 
a  more  embarrassing  and  discouraging 
position.  He  knew  just  enough  of  mili 
tary  science,  as  he  expressed  it  himself,  to 
measure  the  extent  of  his  ignorance,  and 


i6 

with  a  handful  of  men  he  was  marching, 
in  rough  winter  weather,  into  a  strange 
country,  among  a  hostile  population,  to 
confront  a  largely  superior  force  under  the 
command  of  a  distinguished  graduate  of 
West  Point,  who  had  seen  active  and 
important  service  in  two  preceding  wars. 
The  result  of  the  campaign  is  matter 
of  history.  The  skill,  the  endurance,  the 
extraordinary  energy  shown  by  GARFIELD, 
the  courage  he  imparted  to  his  men,  raw 
and  untried  as  himself,  the  measures  he 
adopted  to  increase  his  force  and  to  create 
in  the  enemy's  mind  exaggerated  estimates 
of  his  numbers,  bore  perfect  fruit  in  the 
routing  of  Marshall,  the  capture  of  his 
camp,  the  dispersion  of  his  force,  and  the 
emancipation  of  an  important  territory 
from  the  control  of  the  rebellion.  Coming 
at  the  close  of  a  long  series  of  disasters  to 
the  Union  arms,  GARFIELD'S  victory  had  an 
unusual  and  extraneous  importance,  and  in 


I? 

the  popular  judgment  elevated  the  young 
commander  to  the  rank  of  a  military  hero. 
With  less  than  two  thousand  men  in  his 
entire  command,  with  a  mobilized  force  of 
only  eleven  hundred,  without  cannon,  he 
had  met  an  army  of  five  thousand  and 
defeated  them — driving  Marshall's  forces 
successively  from  two  .strongholds  of  their 
own  selection,  fortified  with  'abundant  artil 
lery.  Major  General  Buell,  commanding 
the  Department  of  the  Ohio,  an  expe 
rienced  and  able  soldier  of  the  Regular 
Army,  published  an  order  of  thanks  and 
congratulation  on  the  brilliant  result  of  the 
Big  Sandy  Campaign,  which  would  have 
turned  the  head  of  a  less  cool  and  sensi 
ble  man  than  GARFIELD.  Buell  declared 
that  his  services  had  called  into  adtion  the 
highest  qualities  of  a  soldier,  and  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  supplemented  these  words 
of  praise  by  the  more  substantial  reward 
of  a  Brigadier  General's  Commission,  to 


i8 

bear   date  from   the  day  of    his  decisive 
victory  over  Marshall. 

The  subsequent  military  career  of  GAR- 
FIELD  fully  sustained  its  brilliant  beginning. 
With  his  new  commission  he  was  assigned 
to  the  command  of  a  brigade  in  the  Army 
of  the  Ohio,  and  took  part  in  the  second 
and  decisive  day's  fight  on  the  bloody  field 
of  Shiloh.  The  remainder  of  the  year  1862 
was  not  especially  eventful  to  GARFIELD,  as 
it  was  not  to  the  armies  with  which  he  was 
serving.  His  practical  sense  was  called  into 
exercise  in  completing  the  task,  assigned 
him  by  General  Buell,  of  reconstructing 
bridges  and  re-establishing  lines  of  railway 
communication  for  the  Army.  His  occu 
pation  in  this  useful  but  not  brilliant  field 
was  varied  by  service  on  courts-martial  of 
importance,  in  which  department  of  duty 
he  won  a  valuable  reputation,  attracting 
the  notice  and  securing  the  approval  of  the 
able  and  eminent  Judge  Advocate  General 


19 

of  the  Army.  This  of  itself  was  warrant 
to  honorable  fame;  for  among  the  great 
men  who  in  those  trying  days  gave  them 
selves,  with  entire  devotion,  to  the  service 
of  their  country,  one  who  brought  to  that 
service  the  ripest  learning,  the  most  fervid 
eloquence,  the  most  varied  attainments,' 
who  labored  with  modesty  and  shunned 
applause,  who  in  the  day  of  triumph 
sat  reserved  and  silent  and  grateful — as 
Francis  Deak  in  the  hour  of  Hungary's 
deliverance — was  Joseph  Holt,  of  Ken 
tucky,  who  in  his  honorable  retirement 
enjoys  the  respecl  and  veneration  of  all 
who  love  the  Union  of  the  States. 

Early  in  1863  GARFIELD  was  assigned 
to  the  highly  important  and  responsible 
post  of  Chief  of  Staff  to  General  Rosecrans, 
then  at  the  head  of  the  Army  of  the 
Cumberland.  Perhaps  in  a  great  military 
campaign  no  subordinate  officer  requires 
sounder  judgment  and  quicker  knowledge 


20 

of  men  than  the  Chief  of  Staff  to  the  Com 
manding  General.  An  indiscreet  man  in 
such  a  position  can  sow  more  discord, 
breed  more  jealousy,  and  disseminate  more 
strife  than  any  other  officer  in  the  entire 
organization.  When  General  GARFIELD 
assumed  his  new  duties  he  found  various 
troubles  already  well  developed  and  seri 
ously  affecting  the  value  and  efficiency  of 
the  Army  of  the  Cumberland.  The  energy, 
the  impartiality,  and  the  tadt  with  which  he 
sought  to  allay  these  dissensions,  and  to 
discharge  the  duties  of  his  new  and  trying 
position,  will  always  remain  one  of  the  most 
striking  proofs  of  his  great  versatility.  H  is 
military  duties  closed  on  the  memorable 
field  of  Chickamauga,  a  field  which,  how 
ever  disastrous  to  the  Union  arms,  gave 
to  him  the  occasion  of  winning  imperish 
able  laurels.  The  very  rare  distinction 
was  accorded  him  of  a  great  promo 
tion  for  bravery  on  a  field  that  was  lost. 


21 

President  Lincoln  appointed  him  a  Major 
General  in  the  Army  of  the  United  States 
for  gallant  and  meritorious  conduct  in  the 
battle  of  Chickamauga. 

The  Army  of  the  Cumberland  was  reor 
ganized  under  the  command  of  General 
Thomas,  who  promptly  offered  GARFIELD 
one  of  its  divisions.  He  was  extremely 
desirous  to  accept  the  position,  but  was 
embarrassed  by  the  fad  that  he  had,  a  year 
before,  been  elected  to  Congress,  and  the 
time  when  he  must  take  his  seat  was  draw 
ing  near.  He  preferred  to  remain  in  the 
military  service,  and  had  within  his  own 
breast  the  largest  confidence  of  success  in 
the  wider  field  which  his  new  rank  opened 
to  him.  Balancing  the  arguments  on  the 
one  side  and  the  other,  anxious  to  deter 
mine  what  was  for  the  best,  desirous  above 
all  things  to  do  his  patriotic  duty,  he  was 
decisively  influenced  by  the  advice  of  Pres 
ident  Lincoln  and  Secretary  Stanton,  both 


22 

of  whom  assured  him  that  he  could,  at  that 
time,  be  of  especial  value  in  the  House  of 
Representatives.  He  resigned  his  com 
mission  of  major-general  on  the  5th  day 
of  December,  1863,  and  took  his  seat  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  yth. 
He  had  served  two  years  and  four  months 
in  the  Army,  and  had  just  completed  his 
thirty-second  year. 

The  Thirty-eighth  Congress  is  pre-emi 
nently  entitled  in  history  to  the  designation 
of  the  War  Congress.  It  was  elected  while 
the  war  was  flagrant,  and  every  member 
was  chosen  upon  the  issues  involved  in  the 
continuance  of  the  struggle.  The  Thirty- 
seventh  Congress  had,  indeed,  legislated 
to  a  large  extent  on  war  measures,  but  it 
was  chosen  before  any  one  believed  that 
secession  of  the  States  would  be  actually 
attempted.  The  magnitude  of  the  work 
which  fell  upon  its  successor  was  unpre 
cedented,  both  in  respedt  to  the  vast  sums 


23 

of  money  raised  for  the  support  of  the 
Army  and  Navy,  and  of  the  new  and 
extraordinary  powers  of  legislation  which 
it  was  forced  to  exercise.  Only  twenty- 
four  States  were  represented,  and  one 
hundred  and  eighty-two  members  were 
upon  its  roll.  Among  these  were  many 
distinguished  party  leaders  on  both  sides, 
veterans  in  the  public  service,  with  estab 
lished  reputations  for  ability,  and  with 
that  skill  which  comes  only  from  parlia 
mentary  experience.  Into  this  assemblage 
of  men  GARFIELD  entered  without  special 
preparation,  and,  it  might  almost  be  said, 
unexpectedly.  The  question  of  taking 
command  of  a  division  of  troops  under 
General  Thomas,  or  taking  his  seat  in  Con 
gress,  was  kept  open  till  the  last  moment, 
so  late,  indeed,  that  the  resignation  of  his 
military  commission  and  his  appearance  in 
the  House  were  almost  contemporaneous. 
He  wore  the  uniform  of  a  major-general  of 


24 

the  United  States  Army  on  Saturday,  and 
on  Monday,  in  civilian's  dress,  he  answered 
to  the  roll-call  as  a  Representative  in  Con 
gress  from  the  State  of  Ohio. 

He  was  especially  fortunate  in  the  con 
stituency  which  elected  him.  Descended 
almost  entirely  from  New  England  stock, 
the  men  of  the  Ashtabula  district  were 
intensely  radical  on  all  questions  relating 
to  human  rights.  Well  educated,  thrifty, 
thoroughly  intelligent  in  affairs,  acutely 
discerning  of  character,  not  quick  to  bestow 
confidence,  and  slow  to  withdraw  it,  they 
were  at  once  the  most  helpful  and  most 
exacting  of  supporters.  Their  tenacious 
trust  in  men  in  whom  they  have  once  con 
fided  is  illustrated  by  the  unparalleled  fact 
that  Elisha  Whittlesey,  Joshua  R.  Giddings, 
and  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD  represented  the 
district  for  fifty-four  years. 

There  is  no  test  of  a  man's  ability  in  any 
department  of  public  life  more  severe  than 


25 

service  in  the  House  of  Representatives; 
there  is  no  place  where  so  little  deference 
is  paid  to  reputation  previously  acquired, 
or  to  eminence  won  outside ;  no  place  where 
so  little  consideration  is  shown  for  the  feel 
ings  or  the  failures  of  beginners.  What  a 
man  gains  in  the  House  he  gains  by  sheer 
force  of  his  own  character,  and  if  he  loses 
and  falls  back  he  must  exped;  no  mercy, 
and  will  receive  no  sympathy.  It  is  a  field 
in  which  the  survival  of  the  strongest  is 
the  recognized  rule,  and  where  no  pretense 
can  deceive  and  no  glamour  can  mislead. 
The  real  man  is  discovered,  his  worth  is 
impartially  weighed,  his  rank  is  irreversibly 
decreed. 

With  possibly  a  single  exception,  GAR- 
FIELD  was  the  youngest  member  in  the 
House  when  he  entered,  and  was  but  seven 
years  from  his  college  graduation.  But  he 
had  not  been  in  his  seat  sixty  days  before 
his  ability  was  recognized  and  his  place 


26 

conceded.  He  stepped  to  the  front  with 
the  confidence  of  one  who  belonged  there. 
The  House  was  crowded  with  strong  men 
of  both  parties;  nineteen  of  them  have 
since  been  transferred  to  the  Senate,  and 
many  of  them  have  served  with  distinction 
in  the  gubernatorial  chairs  of  their  respect 
ive  States,  and  on  foreign  missions  of  great 
consequence;  but  among  them  all  none 
grew  so  rapidly,  none  so  firmly,  as  GAR- 
FIELD.  As  is  said  by  Trevelyan  of  his 
parliamentary  hero,  GARFIELD  succeeded 
"because  all  the  world  in  concert  could 
not  have  kept  him  in  the  background,  and 
because  when  once  in  the  front  he  played 
his  part  with  a  prompt  intrepidity  and  a 
commanding  ease  that  were  but  the  out 
ward  symptoms  of  the  immense  reserves 
of  energy  on  which  it  was  in  his  power  to 
draw."  Indeed,  the  apparently  reserved 
force  which  GARFIELD  possessed  was  one 
of  his  great  characteristics.  He  never  did 


27 

so  well  but  that  it  seemed  he  could  easily 
have  done  better.  He  never  expended  so 
much  strength  but  that  he  appeared  to  be 
holding  additional  power  at  call.  This  is 
one  of  the  happiest  and  rarest  distinctions 
of  an  effective  debater,  and  often  counts 
for  as  much,  in  persuading  an  assembly,  as 
the  eloquent  and  elaborate  argument. 

The  great  measure  of  GARFIELD'S  fame 
was  filled  by  his  service  in  the  House  of 
Representatives.  His  military  life,  illus 
trated  by  honorable  performance,  and  rich 
in  promise,  was,  as  he  himself  felt,  prema 
turely  terminated,  and  necessarily  incom 
plete.  Speculation  as  to  what  he  might 
have  done  in  a  field  where  the  great  prizes 
are  so  few,  cannot  be  profitable.  It  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  as  a  soldier  he  did 
his  duty  bravely;  he  did  it  intelligently; 
he  won  an  enviable  fame,  and  he  retired 
from  the  service  without  blot  or  breath 
against  him.  As  a  lawyer,  though  admi- 


28 

rably  equipped  for  the  profession,  he  can 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  entered  on  its 
practice.  The  few  efforts  he  made  at  the 
bar  were  distinguished  by  the  same  high 
order  of  talent  which  he  exhibited  on  every 
field  where  he  was  put  to  the  test;  and,  if  a 
man  may  be  accepted  as  a  competent  judge 
of  his  own  capacities  and  adaptations,  the 
law  was  the  profession  to  which  GARFIELD 
should  have  devoted  himself.  But  fate 
ordained  otherwise,  and  his  reputation  in 
history  will  rest  largely  upon  his  service  in 
the  House  of  Representatives.  That  serv 
ice  was  exceptionally  long.  He  was  nine 
times  consecutively  chosen  to  the  House, 
an  honor  enjoyed  probably  by  not  twenty 
other  Representatives  of  the  more  than 
five  thousand  who  have  been  elected  from 
the  organization  of  the  Government  to  this 
hour. 

As  a  parliamentary  orator,  as  a  debater 
on   an    issue   squarely  joined,  where   the 


29 

position  had  been  chosen  and  the  ground 
laid  out,  GARFIELD  must  be  assigned  a 
very  high  rank.  More,  perhaps,  than  any 
man  with  whom  he  \vas  associated  in 
public  life,  he  gave  careful  and  systematic 
study  to  public  questions,  and  he  came  to 
every  discussion  in  which  he  took  part  with 
elaborate  and  complete  preparation.  He 
was  a  steady  and  indefatigable  worker. 
Those  who  imagine  that  talent  or  genius 
can  supply  the  place  or  achieve  the  results 
of  labor  will  find  no  encouragement  in 
GARFIELD'S  life.  In  preliminary  work  he 
was  apt,  rapid,  and  skillful.  He  possessed 
in  a  high  degree  the  power  of  readily 
absorbing  ideas  and  facts,  and,  like  Dr. 
Johnson,  had  the  art  of  getting  from  a 
book  all  that  \vas  of  value  in  it  by  a 
reading  apparently  so  quick  and  cursory 
that  it  seemed  like  a  mere  glance  at  the 
table  of  contents.  He  was  a  pre-emi 
nently  fair  and  candid  man  in  debate, 


30 

took  no  petty  advantage,  stooped  to  no 
unworthy  methods,  avoided  personal  allu 
sions,  rarely  appealed  to  prejudice,  did  not 
seek  to  inflame  passion.  He  had  a  quicker 
eye  for  the  strong  point  of  his  adversary 
than  for  his  weak  point,  and  on  his  own 
side  he  so  marshalled  his  weighty  argu 
ments  as  to  make  his  hearers  forget  any 
possible  lack  in  the  complete  strength  of 
his  position.  He  had  a  habit  of  stating 
his  opponent's  side  with  such  amplitude  of 
fairness  and  such  liberality  of  concession 
that  his  followers  often  complained  that  he 
was  giving  his  case  away.  But  never  in 
his  prolonged  participation  in  the  proceed 
ings  of  the  House  did  he  give  his  case 
away,  or  fail  in  the  judgment  of  competent 
and  impartial  listeners  to  gain  the  mastery. 
These  characteristics,  which  marked 
GARFIELD  as  a  great  debater,  did  not, 
however,  make  him  a  great  parliamentary 
leader.  A  parliamentary  leader,  as  that 


term  is  understood  wherever  free  repre 
sentative  government  exists,  is  necessarily 
and  very  striclly  the  organ  of  his  party. 
An  ardent  American  defined  the  instinctive 
warmth  of  patriotism  when  he  offered  the 
toast,  "  Our  country,  always  right;  but  right 
or  wrong,  our  country."  The  parliamentary 
leader  who  has  a  body  of  followers  that  will 
do  and  dare  and  die  for  the  cause,  is  one 
who  believes  his  party  always  right,  but 
right  or  wrong,  is  for  his  party.  No  more 
important  or  exacting  duty  devolves  upon 
him  than  the  selection  of  the  field  and 
the  time  for  contest.  He  must  know  not 
merely  how  to  strike,  but  where  to  strike 
and  when  to  strike.  He  often  skillfully 
avoids  the  strength  of  his  opponent's  posi 
tion  and  scatters  confusion  in  his  ranks  by 
attacking  an  exposed  point  when  really  the 
righteousness  of  the  cause  and  the  strength 
of  logical  intrenchment  are  against  him. 
He  conquers  often  both  against  the  right 


32 

and  the  heavy  battalions ;  as  when  young 
Charles  Fox,  in  the  days  of  his  Toryism, 
carried  the  House  of  Commons  against  jus 
tice,  against  its  immemorial  rights,  against 
his  own  convictions,  if,  indeed,  at  that  period 
Fox  had  convictions,  and,  in  the  interest  of 
a  corrupt  administration,  in  obedience  to  a 
tyrannical  sovereign,  drove  Wilkes  from 
the  seat  to  which  the  electors  of  Middlesex 
had  chosen  him,  and  installed  Luttrell,  in 
defiance  not  merely  of  law  but  of  public 
decency.  For  an  achievement  of  that  kind 
GARFIELD  was  disqualified — disqualified 
by  the  texture  of  his  mind,  by  the  honesty 
of  his  heart,  by  his  conscience,  and  by  every 
instinct  and  aspiration  of  his  nature. 

The  three  most  distinguished  parlia 
mentary  leaders  hitherto  developed  in  this 
country  are  Mr.  Clay,  Mr.  Douglas,  and 
Mr.  Thaddeus  Stevens.  They  were  all  men 
of  consummate  ability,  of  great  earnestness, 
of  intense  personality,  differing  widely  each 


33 

from  the  others,  and  yet  with  a  signal  trait 
in  common — the  power  to  command.  In 
the  give-and-take  of  daily  discussion,  in  the 
art  of  controlling  and  consolidating  reludl- 
ant  and  refractory  followers,  in  the  skill  to 
overcome  all  forms  of  opposition,  and  to 
meet  with  competency  and  courage  the 
varying  phases  of  unlooked-for  assault  or 
unsuspected  defection,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  rank  with  these  a  fourth  name  in  all  our 
Congressional  history.  But  of  these  Mr. 
Clay  was  the  greatest.  It  would,  perhaps, 
be  impossible  to  find  in  the  parliamentary 
annals  of  the  world  a  parallel  to  Mr.  Clay, 
in  1841,  when  at  sixty-four  years  of  age  he 
took  the  control  of  the  Whig  party  from  the 
President  who  had  received  their  suffrages, 
against  the  power  of  Webster  in  the  Cabi 
net,  against  the  eloquence  of  Choate  in  the 
Senate,  against  the  herculean  efforts  of 
Caleb  Cushing  and  Henry  A.  Wise  in  the 
House.  In  unshared  leadership,  in  the 


34 

pride  and  plenitude  of  power,  he  hurled 
against  John  Tyler  with  deepest  scorn  the 
mass  of  that  conquering  column  which  had 
swept  over  the  land  in  1840,  and  drove  his 
administration  to  seek  shelter  behind  the 
lines  of  ,  its  political  foes.  Mr.  Douglas 
achieved  a  victory  scarcely  less  wonderful 
when,  in  1854,  against  the  secret  desires  of 
a  strong  administration,  against  the  wise 
counsel  of  the  older  chiefs,  against  the 
conservative  instincts  and  even  the  moral 
sense  of  the  country,  he  forced  a  reluctant 
Congress  into  a  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  Mr.  Thaddeus  Stevens  in 
his  contests  from  1865  to  1868  actually 
advanced  his  parliamentary  leadership  until 
Congress  tied  the  hands  of  the  President 
and  governed  the  country  by  its  own 
will,  leaving  only  perfunctory  duties  to  be 
discharged  by  the  Executive.  With  two 
hundred  millions  of  patronage  in  his  hands 
at  the  opening  of  the  contest,  aided  by  the 


35 

artive  force  of  Seward  in  the  Cabinet  and 
the  moral  power  of  Chase  on  the  bench, 
Andrew  Johnson  could  not  command  the 
support  of  one-third  in  either  House 
against  the  parliamentary  uprising  of  which 
Thaddeus  Stevens  was  the  animating  spirit 
and  the  unquestioned  leader. 

From  these  three  great  men  GARFIELD 
differed  radically,  differed  in  the  quality  of 
his  mind,  in  temperament,  in  the  form  and 
phase  of  ambition.  He  could  not  do  what 
they  did,  but  he  could  do  what  they  could 
not,  and  in  the  breadth  of  his  Congressional 
work  he  left  that  which  will  longer  exert  a 
potential  influence  among  men,  and  which, 
measured  by  the  severe  test  of  posthumous 
criticism,  will  secure  a  more  enduring  and 
more  enviable -fame. 

Those  unfamiliar  with  GARFIELD'S  in 
dustry,  and  ignorant  of  the  details  of  his 
work,  may,  in  some  degree,  measure  them 
by  the  annals  of  Congress.  No  one  of  the 


36 

generation  of  public  men  to  which  he 
belonged  has  contributed  so  much  that 
will  prove  valuable  for  future  reference. 
His  speeches  are  numerous,  many  of  them 
brilliant,  all  of  them  well  studied,  carefully 
phrased,  and  exhaustive  of  the  subject 
under  consideration.  Collected  from  the 
scattered  pages  of  ninety  royal  octavo  vol 
umes  of  Congressional  record,  they  would 
present  an  invaluable  compendium  of  the 
political  events  of  the  most  important  era 
through  which  the  National  Government 
has  ever  passed.  When  the  history  of  this 
period  shall  be  impartially  written,  when 
war  legislation,  measures  of  reconstruction, 
protection  of  human  rights,  amendments 
to  the  Constitution,  maintenance  of  public 
credit,  steps  toward  specie  resumption,  true 
theories  of  revenue,  may  be  reviewed,  un- 
surrounded  by  prejudice  and  disconnected 
from  partisanism,  the  speeches  of  GARFIELD 
will  be  estimated  at  their  true  value,  and 


37 

will  be  found  to  comprise  a  vast  magazine 
of  fad:  and  argument,  of  clear  analysis  and 
sound  conclusion.  Indeed,  if  no  other 
authority  were  accessible,  his  speeches  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  from  Decem 
ber,  1863,  to  June,  1880,  would  give  a  well- 
connected  history  and  complete  defense  of 
the  important  legislation  of  the  seventeen 
eventful  years  that  constitute  his  parlia 
mentary  life.  Far  beyond  that,  his  speeches 
would  be  found  to  forecast  many  great 
measures  yet  to  be  completed — measures 
which  he  knew  were  beyond  the  public 
opinion  of  the  hour,  but  which  he  confi 
dently  believed  would  secure  popular  ap 
proval  within  the  period  of  his  own  lifetime 
and  by  the  aid  of  his  own  efforts. 

Differing,  as  GARFIELD  does,  from  the 
brilliant  parliamentary  leaders,  it  is  not 
easy  to  find  his  counterpart  anywhere  in 
the  record  of  American  public  life.  He, 
perhaps,  more  nearly  resembles  Mr.  Sew- 


38 

arcl  in  his  supreme  faith  in  the  all-con 
quering  power  of  a  principle.  He  had  the 
love  of  learning,  and  the  patient  industry 
of  investigation,  to  which  John  Quincy 
Adams  owes  his  prominence  and  his  Pres 
idency.  He  had  some  of  those  ponderous 
elements  of  mind  which  distinguished  Mr. 
Webster,  and  which,  indeed,  in  all  our  pub 
lic  life  have  left  the  great  Massachusetts 
Senator  without  an  intellectual  peer. 

In  English  parliamentary  history,  as  in 
our  own,  the  leaders  in  the  House  of 
Commons  present  points  of  essential  dif 
ference  from  GARFIELD.  But  some  of  his 
methods  recall  the  best  features  in  the 
strong,  independent  course  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  to  whom  he  had  striking  resem 
blances  in  the  type  of  his  mind  and  in 
the  habit  of  his  speech.  He  had  all  of 
Burke's  love  for  the  Sublime  and  the 
Beautiful,  with,  possibly,  something  of  his 
superabundance.  In  his  faith  and  his 


39 

magnanimity,  in  his  power  of  statement, 
in  his  subtle  analysis,  in  his  faultless  logic, 
in  his  love  of  literature,  in  his  wealth  and 
world  of  illustration,  one  is  reminded  of 
that  great  English  statesman  of  to-day, 
who,  confronted  with  obstacles  that  would 
daunt  any  but  the  dauntless,  reviled  by 
those  whom  he  would  relieve  as  bitterly 
as  by  those  whose  supposed  rights  he  is 
forced  to  invade,  still  labors  with  serene 
courage  for  the  amelioration  of  Ireland 
and  for  the  honor  of  the  English  name. 

GARFIELD'S  nomination  to  the  Presi 
dency,  while  not  predicted  or  anticipated, 
was  not  a  surprise  to  the  country.  His 
prominence  in  Congress,  his  solid  quali 
ties,  his  wide  reputation,  strengthened  by 
his  then  recent  election  as  Senator  from 
Ohio,  kept  him  in  the  public  eye  as  a  man 
occupying  the  very  highest  rank  among 
those  entitled  to  be  called  statesmen.  It 
was  not  mere  chance  that  brought  him  this 


40 

high  honor.  "We  must,"  says  Mr.  Emer 
son,  "reckon  success  a  constitutional  trait. 
If  Eric  is  in  robust  health  and  has  slept 
well  and  is  at  the  top  of  his  condition, 
and  thirty  years  old  at  his  departure  from 
Greenland,  he  will  steer  west  and  his  ships 
will  reach  Newfoundland.  But  take  Eric 
out  and  put  in  a  stronger  and  bolder  man, 
and  the  ships  will  sail  six  hundred,  one 
thousand,  fifteen  hundred  miles  farther 
and  reach  Labrador  and  New  England. 
There  is  no  chance  in  results." 

As  a  candidate,  GARFIELD  steadily  grew 
in  popular  favor.  He  was  met  with  a 
storm  of  detraction  at  the  very  hour  of  his 
nomination,  and  it  continued  with  increas 
ing  volume  and  momentum  until  the  close 
of  his  victorious  campaign: 

No  might  nor  greatness  in  mortality 
Can  censure  'scape;  backwounding  calumny 
The  whitest  virtue  strikes.     What  king  so  strong 
Can  tie  the  gall  up  in  the  slanderous  tongue? 


Under  it  all  he  was  calm,  and  strong, 
and  confident;  never  lost  his  self-posses 
sion,  did  no  unwise  acl;,  spoke  no  hasty  or 
ill-considered  word.  Indeed,  nothing  in 
his  whole  life  is  more  remarkable  or  more 
creditable  than  his  bearing  through  those 
five  full  months  of  vituperation — a  pro 
longed  agony  of  trial  to  a  sensitive  man,  a 
constant  and  cruel  draft  upon  the  powers 
of  moral  endurance.  The  great  mass  of 
these  unjust  imputations  passed  unnoticed, 
and  with  the  general  debris  of  the  cam 
paign  fell  into  oblivion.  But  in  a  few 
instances  the  iron  entered  his  soul,  and 
he  died  with  the  injury  unforgotten  if  not 
unforgiven. 

One  aspect  of  GARFIELD'S  candidacy  was 
unprecedented.  Never  before,  in  the  his 
tory  of  partisan  contests  in  this  country, 
had  a  successful  Presidential  candidate 
spoken  freely  on  passing  events  and  cur 
rent  issues.  To  attempt  anything  of  the 


42 

kind  seemed  novel,  rash,  and  even  des 
perate.  The  older  class  of  voters  recalled 
the  unfortunate  Alabama  letter,  in  which 
Mr.  Clay  was  supposed  to  have  signed  his 
political  death-warrant.  They  remembered 
also  the  hot-tempered  effusion  by  which 
General  Scott  lost  a  large  share  of  his  pop 
ularity  before  his  nomination,  and  the  un 
fortunate  speeches  which  rapidly  consumed 
the  remainder.  The  younger  voters  had 
seen  Mr.  Greeley,  in  a  series  of  vigorous 
and  original  addresses,  preparing  the  path 
way  for  his  own  •  defeat.  Unmindful  of 
these  warnings,  unheeding  the  advice  of 
friends,  GARFIELD  spoke  to  large  crowds 
as  he  journeyed  to  and  from  New  York  in 
August,  to  a  great  multitude  in  that  city, 
to  delegations  and  deputations  of  every 
kind  that  called  at  Mentor  during  the 
summer  and  autumn.  With  innumerable 
critics,  watchful  and  eager  to  catch  a  phrase 
that  might  be  turned  into  odium  or  ridicule, 


43 

or  a  sentence  that  might  be  distorted  to  his 
own  or  his  party's  injury,  GARFIELD  did 
not  trip  or  halt  in  any  one  of  his  seventy 
speeches.  This  seems  all  the  more  remark 
able  when  it  is  remembered  that  he  did  not 
write  what  he  said,  and  yet  spoke  with  such 
logical  consecutiveness  of  thought  and  such 
admirable  precision  of  phrase  as  to  defy  the 
accident  of  misreport  and  the  malignity  of 
misrepresentation. 

In  the  beginning  of  his  Presidential  life 
GARFIELD'S  experience  did  notN  yield  him 
pleasure  or  satisfaction.  The  duties  that 
engross  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Presi 
dent's  time  were  distasteful  to  him,  and 
were  unfavorably  contrasted  with  his  legis 
lative  work.  "  I  have  been  dealing  all 
these  years  with  ideas,"  he  impatiently 
exclaimed  one  day,  "and  here  I  am  deal 
ing  only  with  persons.  I  have  been  hereto 
fore  treating  of  the  fundamental  principles 
of  government,  and  here  I  am  considering 


44 

all  day  whether  A  or  B  shall  be  appointed 
to  this  or  that  office."  He  was  earnestly 
seeking  some  practical  way  of  correcting 
the  evils  arising  from  the  distribution  of 
overgrown  and  unwieldy  patronage — evils 
always  appreciated  and  often  discussed  by 
him,  but  whose  magnitude  had  been  more 
deeply  impressed  upon  his  mind  since  his 
accession  to  the  Presidency.  Had  he  lived, 
a  comprehensive  improvement  in  the  mode 
of  appointment  and  in  the  tenure  of  office 
would  have  been  proposed  by  him,  and, 
with  the  aid  of  Congress,  no  doubt  per 
fected. 

But,  while  many  of  the  Executive  duties 
were  not  grateful  to  him,  he  was  assiduous 
and  conscientious  in  their  discharge.  From 
the  very  outset  he  exhibited  administrative 
talent  of  a  high  order.  He  grasped  the 
helm  of  office  with  the  hand  of  a  master. 
In  this  respedt,  indeed,  he  constantly  sur 
prised  many  who  were  most  intimately 


45 

associated  with  him  in  the  Government, 
and  especially  those  who  had  feared  that 
he  might  be  lacking  in  the  executive  fac 
ulty.  His  disposition  of  business  was 
orderly  and  rapid.  His  power  of  analysis, 
and  his  skill  in  classification,  enabled  him 
to  dispatch  a  vast  mass  of  detail  with  sin 
gular  promptness  and  ease.  His  Cabinet 
meetings  were  admirably  conducted.  His 
clear  presentation  of  official  subjects,  his 
well-considered  suggestion  of  topics  on 
which  discussion  was  invited,  his  quick 
decision  when  all  had  been  heard,  com 
bined  to  show  a  thoroughness  of  mental 
training  as  rare  as  his  natural  ability  and 
his  facile  adaptation  to  a  new  and  enlarged 
field  of  labor. 

With  perfed;  comprehension  of  all  the 
inheritances  of  the  war,  with  a  cool  calcu 
lation  of  the  obstacles  in  his  way,  impelled 
always  by  a  generous  enthusiasm,  GAR- 
FIELD  conceived  that  much  might  be  done 


46 

by  his  Administration  towards  restoring 
harmony  between  the  different  sections  of 
the  Union.  He  was  anxious  to  go  South 
and  speak  to  the  people.  As  early  as 
April  he  had  ineffectually  endeavored  to 
arrange  for  a  trip  to  Nashville,  whither  he 
had  been  cordially  invited,  and  he  was 
again  disappointed  a  few  weeks  later  to 
find  that  he  could  not  go  to  South  Caro 
lina  to  attend  the  centennial  celebration  of 
the  victory  of  the  Cowpens.  But  for  the 
autumn  he  definitely  counted  on  being 
present  at  three  memorable  assemblies  in 
the  South;  the  celebration  at  Yorktown, 
the  opening  of  the  Cotton  Exposition  at 
Atlanta,  and  the  meeting  of  the  Army  of 
the  Cumberland  at  Chattanooga.  He  was 
already  turning  over  in  his  mind  his  ad 
dress  for  each  occasion,  and  the  three  taken 
together,  he  said  to  a  friend,  gave  him  the 
exadt  scope  and  verge  which  he  needed. 
At  Yorktown  he  would  have  before  him 


47 

the  associations  of  a  hundred  years  that 
bound  the  South  and  the  North  in  the 
sacred  memory  of  a  common  danger  and  a 
common  victory.  At  Atlanta  he  would  pre 
sent  the  material  interests  and  the  industrial 
development  which  appealed  to  the  thrift 
and  independence  of  every  household,  and 
which  should  unite  the  two  sections  by  the 
instindt  of  self-interest  and  self-defense.  At 
Chattanooga  he  would  revive  memories  of 
the  war  only  to  show  that  after  all  its  dis 
aster  and  all  its  suffering,  the  country  was 
stronger  and  greater,  the  Union  rendered 
indissoluble,  and  the  future,  through  the 
agony  and  blood  of  one  generation,  made 
brighter  and  better  for  all. 

GARFIELD'S  ambition  for  the  success  of 
his  Administration  was  high.  With  strong 
caution  and  conservatism  in  his  nature,  he 
was  in  no  danger  of  attempting  rash  ex 
periments  or  of  resorting  to  the  empiricism 
of  statesmanship.  But  he  believed  that 


48 

renewed  and  closer  attention  should  be 
given  to  questions  affecting  the  material 
interests  and  commercial  prospects  of  fifty 
millions  of  people.  He  believed  that 
our  continental  relations,  extensive  and 
undeveloped  as  they  are,  involved  re 
sponsibility,  and  could  be  cultivated  into 
profitable  friendship  or  be  abandoned  to 
harmful  indifference  or  lasting  enmity. 
He  believed  with  equal  confidence  that  an 
essential  forerunner  to  a  new  era  of  national 
progress  must  be  a  feeling  of  contentment 
in  every  section  of  the  Union,  and  a  gen 
erous  belief  that  the  benefits  and  burdens 
of  government  would  be  common  to  all. 
Himself  a  conspicuous  illustration  of  what 
ability  and  ambition  may  do  under  repub 
lican  institutions,  he  loved  his  country  with 
a  passion  of  patriotic  devotion,  and  every 
waking  thought  was  given  to  her  advance 
ment.  He  was  an  American  in  all  his 
aspirations,  and  he  looked  to  the  destiny 


49 

and  influence  of  the  United  States  with  the 
philosophic  composure  of  Jefferson  and  the 
demonstrative  confidence  of  John  Adams. 
The  political  events  which  disturbed  the 
President's  serenity  for  many  weeks  before 
that  fateful  day  in  July  form  an  important 
chapter  in  his  career,  and,  in  his  own  judg 
ment,  involved  questions  of  principle  and 
of  right  which  are  vitally  essential  to  the 
constitutional  administration  of  the  Fed 
eral  Government.  It  would  be  out  of 
place  here  and  now  to  speak  the  language 
of  controversy;  but  the  events  referred  to, 
however  they  may  continue  to  be  source 
of  contention  with  others,  have  become,  so 
far  as  GARFIELD  is  concerned,  as  much  a 
matter  of  history  as  his  heroism  at  Chicka- 
mauga  or  his  illustrious  service  in  the 
House.  Detail  is  not  needful,  and  per 
sonal  antagonism  shall  not  be  rekindled 
by  any  word  uttered  to-day.  The  motives 
of  those  opposing  him  are  not  to  be  here 


50 

adversely  interpreted  nor  their  eourse 
harshly  characterized.  But  of  the  dead 
President  this  is  to  be  said,  and  said  be 
cause  his  own  speech  is  forever  silenced 
and  he  can  be  no  more  heard  except 
through  the  fidelity  and  love  of  surviving 
friends:  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of 
the  controversy  he  so  much  deplored,  the 
President  was  never  for  one  moment  adlu- 
ated  by  any  motive  of  gain  to  himself  or 
of  loss  to  others.  Least  of  all  men  did  he 
harbor  revenge,  rarely  did  he  even  show 
resentment,  and  malice  was  not  in  his  na 
ture.  He  was  congenially  employed  only 
in  the  exchange  of  good  offices  and  the 
doing  of  kindly  deeds. 

There  was  not  an  hour,  from  the  begin 
ning  of  the  trouble  till  the  fatal  shot  entered 
his  body,  when  the  President  would  not 
gladly,  for  the  sake  of  restoring  harmony, 
have  retraced  any  step  he  had  taken  if 
such  retracing  had  merely  involved  conse- 


quences  'personal  to  himself.  The  pride 
of  consistency,  or  any  supposed  sense  of 
humiliation  that  might  result  from  surren 
dering  his  position,  had  not  a  feather's 
weight  with  him.  No  man  was  ever  less 
subject  to  such  influences  from  within  or 
from  without.  But  after  most  anxious 
deliberation  and  the  coolest  survey  of  all 
the  circumstances,  he  solemnly  believed 
that  the  true  prerogatives  of  the  Executive 
were  involved  in  the  issue  which  had  been 
raised,  and  that  he  would  be  unfaithful  to 
his  supreme  obligation  if  he  failed  to 
maintain,  in  all  their  vigor,  the  constitu 
tional  rights  and  dignities  of  his  great 
office.  He  believed  this  in  all  the  con- 
vidtions  of  conscience  when  in  sound  and 
vigorous  health,  and  he  believed  it  in  his 
suffering  and  prostration  in  the  last  con 
scious  thought  which  his  wearied  mind 
bestowed  on  the  transitory  struggles  of 
life. 


52 

More  than  this  need  not  be  said.  Less 
than  this  could  not  be  said.  Justice  to  the 
dead,  the  highest  obligation  that  devolves 
upon  the  living,  demands  the  declaration 
that  in  all  the  bearings  of  the  subject, 
actual  or  possible,  the  President  was  con 
tent  in  his  mind,  justified  in  his  conscience, 
immovable  in  his  conclusions. 

The  religious  element  in  GARFIELD'S 
character  was  deep  and  earnest.  In  his 
early  youth  he  espoused  the  faith  of  the 
Disciples,  a  sect  of  that  great  Baptist  Com 
munion,  which  in  different  ecclesiastical 
establishments  is  so  numerous  and  so  in 
fluential  throughout  all  parts  of  the  United 
States.  But  the  broadening  tendency  of 
his  mind  and  his  active  spirit  of  inquiry 
were  early  apparent,  and  carried  him  be 
yond  the  dogmas  of  sect  and  the  restraints 
of  association.  In  selecting  a  college  in 
which  to  continue  his  education  he  rejected 
Bethany,  though  presided  over  by  Alex- 


53 

ander  Campbell,  the  greatest  preacher  of 
his  church.  His  reasons  were  characteris 
tic:  first,  that  Bethany  leaned  too  heavily 
towards  slavery;  and,  second,  that  being 
himself  a  Disciple  and  the  son  of  Disciple 
parents,  he  had  little  acquaintance  with 
people  of  other  beliefs,  and  he  thought  it 
would  make  him  more  liberal,  quoting  his 
own  words,  both  in  his  religious  and  gen 
eral  views,  to  go  into  a  new  circle  and  be 
under  new  influences. 

The  liberal  tendency  which  he  anticipated 
as  the  result  of  wider  culture  was  fully 
realized.  He  was  emancipated  from  mere 
sectarian  belief,  and  with  eager  interest 
pushed  his  investigations  in  the  direction 
of  modern  progressive  thought.  He  fol 
lowed  with  quickening  step  in  the  paths 
of  exploration  and  speculation  so  fearlessly 
trodden  by  Darwin,  by  Huxley,  by  Tyndall, 
and  by  other  living  scientists  of  the  radical 
and  advanced  type.  His  own  church,  bind- 


54 

ing  its  disciples  by  no  formulated  creed,  but 
accepting  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  as 
the  word  of  God,  with  unbiased  liberality  of 
private  interpretation,  favored,  if  it  did  not 
stimulate,  the  spirit  of  investigation.  Its 
members  profess  with  sincerity,  and  profess 
only,  to  be  of  one  mind  and  one  faith  with 
those  who  immediately  followed  the  Mas 
ter,  and  who  were  first  called  Christians  at 
Antioch. 

But  however  high  GARFIELD  reasoned 
of  "fixed  fate,  free  will,  foreknowledge  ab 
solute,"  he  was  never  separated  from  the 
Church  of  the  Disciples  in  his  affections  and 
in  his  associations.  For  him  it  held  the  Ark 
of  the  Covenant.  To  him  it  was  the  gate  of 
Heaven.  The  world  of  religious  belief  is 
full  of  solecisms  and  contradictions.  A 
philosophic  observer  declares  that  men  by 
the  thousand  will  die  in  defense  of  a  creed 
whose  doctrines  they  do  not  comprehend 
and  whose  tenets  they  habitually  violate. 


OF  THE 

ft  UNIVERSITY  ) 

\  OK 


55 

It  is  equally  true  that  men  by  the  thousand 
will  cling  to  church  organizations  with  in 
stinctive  and  undying  fidelity  when  their 
belief  in  maturer  years  is  radically  different 
from  that  which  inspired  them  as  neophytes. 
But  after  this  range  of  speculation,  and 
this  latitude  of  doubt,  GARFIELD  came  back 
always  with  freshness  and  delight  to  the 
simpler  instindls  of  religious  faith,  which, 
earliest  implanted,  longest  survive.  Not 
many  weeks  before  his  assassination,  walk 
ing  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac  with  a 
friend,  and  conversing  on  those  topics  of 
personal  religion,  concerning  which  noble 
natures  have  an  unconquerable  reserve,  he 
said  that  he  found  the  Lord's  Prayer  and 
the  simple  petitions  learned  in  infancy  in 
finitely  restful  to  him,  not  merely  in  their 
stated  repetition,  but  in  their  casual  and 
frequent  recall  as  he  went  about  the  daily 
duties  of  life.  Certain  texts  of  scripture 
had  a  very  strong  hold  on  his  memory 


56 

and  his  heart.  He  heard,  while  in  Edin 
burgh  some  years  ago,  an  eminent  Scotch 
preacher  who  prefaced  his  sermon  \vith 
reading  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Romans,  which  book  had  been  the 
subject  of  careful  study  with  GARFIELD 
during  all  his  religious  life.  He  was 
greatly  impressed  by  the  elocution  of  the 
preacher  and  declared  that  it  had  imparted 
a  new  and  deeper  meaning  to  the  majestic 
utterance  of  St.  Paul.  He  referred  often 
in  after  years  to  that  memorable  service, 
and  dwelt  with  exaltation  of  feeling  upon 
the  radiant  promise  and  the  assured  hope 
with  which  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gen 
tiles  was  ''persuaded  that  neither  death, 
nor  life,  nor  angels,  nor  principalities,  nor 
powers,  nor  things  present,  nor  things  to 
come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from 
the  love  of  God,  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus 
our  Lord." 


57 

The  crowning  characteristic  of  General 
GARFIELD'S  religious  opinions,  as,  indeed, 
of  all  his  opinions,  was  his  liberality.  In 
all  things  he  had  charity.  Tolerance  was 
of  his  nature.  He  respected  in  others 
the  qualities  which  he  possessed  himself— 
sincerity  of  conviction  and  frankness  of 
expression.  With  him  the  inquiry  was 
not  so  much  what  a  man  believes,  but 
does  he  believe  it?  The  lines  of  his 
friendship  and  his  confidence  encircled 
men  of  every  creed,  and  men  of  no  creed, 
and  to  the  end  of  his  life,  on  his  ever- 
lengthening  list  of  friends,  were  to  be 
found  the  names  of  a  pious  Catholic  priest 
and  of  an  honest-minded  and  generous- 
hearted  free-thinker. 

On  the  morning  of  Saturday,  July  sec 
ond,  .  the  President  was  a  contented  and 
happy  man — not  in  an  ordinary  degree, 
but  joyfully,  almost  boyishly  happy.  On 
his  way  to  the  railroad  station,  to  which  he 


58 

drove  slowly,  in  conscious  enjoyment  of 
the  beautiful  morning,  with  an  unwonted 
sense  of  leisure  and  a  keen  anticipation  of 
pleasure,  his  talk  was  all  in  the  grateful 
and  gratulatory  vein.  He  felt  that  after 
four  months  of  trial  his  Administration 
was  strong  in  its  grasp  of  affairs,  strong 
in  popular  favor,  and  destined  to  grow 
stronger;  that  grave  difficulties  confront 
ing  him  at  his  inauguration  had  been 
safely  passed ;  that  trouble  lay  behind  him 
and  not  before  him ;  that  he  was  soon  to 
meet  the  wife  whom  he  loved,  now  recov 
ering  from  an  illness  which  had  but  lately 
disquieted  and  at  times  almost  unnerved 
him;  that  he  was  going  to  his  Alma  Mater 
to  renew  the  most  cherished  associations 
of  his  young  manhood,  and  to  exchange 
greetings  with  those  whose  deepening 
interest  had  followed  every  step  of  his 
upward  progress  from  the  day  he  entered 
upon  his  college  course  until  he  had  at- 


59 

tained  the  loftiest  elevation  in  the  gift  of 
his  countrymen. 

Surely,  if  happiness  can  ever  come  from 
the  honors  or  triumphs  of  this  world,  on 
that  quiet  July  morning  JAMES  A.  GAR- 
FIELD  may  well  have  been  a  happy  man. 
No  foreboding  of  evil  haunted  him;  no 
slightest  premonition  of  danger  clouded 
his  sky.  His  terrible  fate  was  upon  him  in 
an  instant.  One  moment  he  stood  erecl;, 
strong,  confident  in  the  years  stretching 
peacefully  out  before  him.  The  next  he 
lay  wounded,  bleeding,  helpless,  doomed 
to  weary  weeks  of  torture,  to  silence,  and 
the  grave. 

Great  in  life,  he  was  surpassingly  great 
in  death.  For  no  cause,  in  the  very  frenzy 
of  wantonness  and  wickedness,  by  the  red 
hand  of  murder,  he  was  thrust  from  the  full 
tide  of  this  world's  interest,  from  its  hopes, 
its  aspirations,  its  victories,  into  the  visible 
presence  of  death — and  he  did  not  quail. 


6o 

Not  alone  for  the  one  short  moment  in 
which,  stunned  and  dazed,  he  could  give 
up  life,  hardly  aware  of  its  relinquishment, 
but  through  days  of  deadly  languor, 
through  weeks  of  agony,  that  was  not  less 
agony  because  silently  borne,  with  clear 
sight  and  calm  courage,  he  looked  into 
his  open  grave.  What  blight  and  ruin  met 
his  anguished  eyes,  whose  lips  may  tell— 
what  brilliant,  broken  plans,  what  baffled, 
high  ambitions,  what  sundering  of  strong, 
warm,  manhood's  friendships,  what  bitter 
rending  of  sweet  household  ties !  Behind 
him  a  proud,  expectant  nation,  a  great  host 
of  sustaining  friends,  a  cherished  and  happy 
mother,  wearing  the  full,  rich  honors  of  her 
early  toil  and  tears;  the  wife  of  his  youth, 
whose  whole  life  lay  in  his ;  the  little  boys 
not  yet  emerged  from  childhood's  day  of 
frolic;  the  fair  young  daughter;  the  sturdy 
sons  just  springing  into  closest  companion 
ship,  claiming  every  day  and  every  day 


6i 

rewarding  a  father's  love  and  care;  and  in 
his  heart  the  eager,  rejoicing  power  to  meet 
all  demand.  Before  him,  desolation  and 
great  darkness!  And  his  soul  was  not 
shaken.  His  countrymen  were  thrilled  with 
instant,  profound,  and  universal  sympathy. 
Masterful  in  his  mortal  weakness,  he  be 
came  the  center  of  a  nation's  love,  enshrined 
in  the  prayers  of  a  world.  But  all  the  love 
and  all  the  sympathy  could  not  share  with 
him  his  suffering.  He  trod  the  wine-press 
alone.  With  unfaltering  front  he  faced 
death.  With  unfailing  tenderness  he  took 
leave  of  life.  Above  the  demoniac  hiss  of 
the  assassin's  bullet  he  heard  the  voice  of 
God.  With  simple  resignation  he  bowed 
to  the  divine  decree. 

As  the  end  drew  near,  his  early  craving 
for  the  sea  returned.  The  stately  mansion 
of  power  had  been  to  him  the  wearisome 
hospital  of  pain,  and  he  begged  to  be  taken 
from  its  prison  walls,  from  its  oppressive, 


62 

stifling  air,  from  its  homelessness  and  its 
hopelessness.  Gently,  silently,  the  love  of 
a  great  people  bore  the  pale  sufferer  to  the 
longed-for  healing  of  the  sea,  to  live  or  to 
die,  as  God  should  will,  within  sight  of  its 
heaving  billows,  within  sound  of  its  mani 
fold  voices.  With  wan,  fevered  face  ten 
derly  lifted  to  the  cooling  breeze,  he  looked 
out  wistfully  upon  the  ocean's  changing 
wonders ;  on  its  far  sails,  whitening  in  the 
morning  light;  on  its  restless  waves,  rolling 
shoreward  to  break  and 'die  beneath  the 
noonday  sun ;  on  the  red  clouds  of  even 
ing,  arching  low  to  the  horizon;  on  the 
serene  and  shining  pathway  of  the  stars. 
Let  us  think  that  his  dying  eyes  read  a 
mystic  meaning  which  only  the  rapt  and 
parting  soul  may  know.  Let  us  believe 
that  in  the  silence  of  the  receding  world  he 
heard  the  great  waves  breaking  on  a  farther 
shore,  and  felt  already  upon  his  wasted 
brow  the  breath  of  the  eternal  morning. 


APPENDIX. 

The  Senate  on  December  6th  adopted 
the  following  resolution : 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  six  Sen 
ators  be  appointed,  on  the  part  of  the 
Senate,  to  join  such  committee  as  may 
be  appointed,  on  the  part  of  the  House, 
to  consider  and  report  by  what  token  of 
respect  and  affection  it  may  be  proper  for 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  ex 
press  the  deep  sensibility  of  the  Nation  to 
the  event  of  the  decease  of  the  late  Presi 
dent,  JAMES  A.  GARFIKLD,  and  that  so 
much  of  the  message  of  the  President  as 
relates  to  that  melancholy  event  be  referred 
to  said  committee. 

The  Committee  on  the  part  of  the  Sen 
ate,  having  been  subsequently  increased  to 


64 

eight,  comprised  the  following  named  gen 
tlemen: 

John  Sherman  of  Ohio,  George  H.  Pen- 
dleton  of  Ohio,  Henry  L.  Dawes  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  Elbridge  G.  Lapham  of  New 
York,  Omar  D.  Conger  of  Michigan, 
Thomas  F.  Bayard  of  Delaware,  J.  T. 
Morgan  of  Alabama,  Joseph  E.  Brown  of 
Georgia. 

The  House  of  Representatives  on  De 
cember  6th  passed  the  following  resolu 
tion  : 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  one 
member  from  each  State  represented  in 
this  House  be  appointed  on  the  part  of 
the  House  to  join  such  committee  as  may 
be  appointed  on  the  part  of  the  Senate, 
to  consider  and  report  by  what  token  of 
respecl:  and  affeclion  it  may  be  proper  for 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States  to  ex 
press  the  deep  sensibility  of  the  Nation  to 


65 

the  event  of  the  decease  of  their  late  Presi 
dent,  JAMES  ABRAM  GARFIELD,  and  that  so 
much  of  the  message  of  the  President  as 
refers  to  that  melancholy  event  be  referred 
to  said  committee. 

William  McKinley,  jr.,  of  Ohio,  Ro- 
mualdo  Pacheco  of  California,  James  B. 
Belford  of  Colorado,  James  T.  Wait  of 
Connecticut,  William  H.  Forney  of  Ala 
bama,  Poindexter  Dunn  of  Arkansas,  Ed 
ward  L.  Martin  of  Delaware,  Robert  H. 
M.  Davidson  of  Florida,  Alexander  H. 
Stephens  of  Georgia,  Joseph  G.  Cannon  of 
Illinois,  Godlove  S.  Orth  of  Indiana,  John 
A.  Kasson  of  Iowa,  John  A.  Anderson  of 
Kansas,  John  G.  Carlisle  of  Kentucky, 
Randall  Lee  Gibson  of  Louisiana,  Nelson 
Dingley,  jr.,  of  Maine,  Robert  M.  McLane 
of  Maryland,  Benjamin  W.  Harris  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  Roswell  G.  Horr  of  Michigan, 
Mark  H.  Dunnell  of  Minnesota,  Charles 


on- 


66 

E.  Hooker  of  Mississippi,  Nicolas  Ford 
of  Missouri,  Edward  K.  Valentine  of 
Nebraska,  George  W.  Cassidy  of  Nevada, 
Joshua  G.  Hall  of  New  Hampshire,  John 
Hill  of  New  Jersey,  Samuel  S.  Cox  of 
New  York,  Robert  B.  Vance  of  North 
Carolina,  Melvin  C.  George  of  Oregon, 
Charles  O'Neill  of  Pennsylvania,  Jonathan 
Chace  of  Rhode  Island,  D.  Wyatt  Aiken 
of  South  Carolina,  Augustus  H.  Pettibone 
of  Tennessee,  Roger  Q.  Mills  of  Texas, 
Charles  H.  Joyce  of  Vermont,  J.  Randolph 
Tucker  of  Virginia,  Benjamin  Wilson  of 
West  Virginia,  and  Charles  G.  Williams 
of  Wisconsin,  were  appointed  as  the  com 
mittee  on  the  part  of  the  House. 

The  following  concurrent  resolutions 
were  adopted  by  both  Houses  of  Con 
gress  December  21,  1881 : 

Whereas  the  melancholy  event  of  the 
violent  and  tragic  death  of  JAMES  ABRAM 


67 

GARFIELD,  late  President  of  the  United 
States,  having  occurred  during  the  recess 
of  Congress,  and  the  two  Houses  sharing 
in  the  general  grief  and  desiring  to  mani 
fest  their  sensibility  upon  the  occasion  of 
the  public  bereavement:  Therefore, 

Be  it  resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives,  That  the  two  Houses 
of  Congress  will  assemble  in  the  Hall  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  on  a  day 
and  hour  to  be  fixed  and  announced  by 
the  Joint  Committee,  and  that  in  the  pres 
ence  of  the  two  Houses  there  assembled 
an  address  upon  the  life  and  character 
of  JAMES  ABRAM  GARFIELD,  late  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States,  be  pronounced 
by  Hon.  James  G.  Elaine,  and  that  the 
President  of  the  Senate  pro  tempore  and 
the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  be  requested  to  invite  the  President 
and  ex-Presidents  of  the  United  States, 
the  Heads  of  the  several  Departments,  the 


68 

Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  repre 
sentatives  of  the  foreign  Governments  near 
this  Government,  the  Governors  of  the  sev 
eral  States,  the  General  of  the  Army  and 
the  Admiral  of  the  Navy,  and  such  officers 
of  the  Army  and  Navy  as  have  received 
the  thanks  of  Congress,  who  may  then  be 
at  the  seat  of  Government,  to  be  present 
on  the  occasion. 

And  be  it  further  resolved,  That  the 
President  of  the  United  States  be  requested 
to  transmit  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  to 
Mrs.  Lucretia  R.  Garfield,  and  to  assure 
her  of  the  profound  sympathy  of  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress  for  her  deep  personal 
affliction,  and  of  their  sincere  condolence 
for  the  late  national  bereavement. 

And  the  following  by  both  Houses  on 
February  i,  1882: 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  Hortse  of 
Representatives,    That   Monday,  the   2yth 


69 

day  of  February,  1882,  be  set  apart  for  the 
Memorial  Services  upon  the  late  President, 
JAMES  ABRAM  GARFIELD. 

A  programme  of  arrangements  was  pre 
pared  by  the  Joint  Committee,  as  follows : 

The  Capitol  will  be  closed  on  the  morn 
ing  of  the  2yth  to  all  except  the  members 
and  officers  of  Congress. 

At  ten  o'clock  the  east  door  leading  to 
the  Rotunda  will  be  opened  to  those  to 
whom  invitations  have  been  extended 
under  the  joint  resolution  of  Congress  by 
the  Presiding  Officers  of  the  two  Houses, 
and  to  those  holding  tickets  of  admission 
to  the  galleries. 

The  Hall  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  will  be  opened  for  the  admission  of 
Representatives,  and  to  those  who  have 
invitations,  who  will  be  conducted  to  the 
seats  assigned  to  them,  as  follows : 


70 

The  President  and  ex-Presidents  of  the 
United  States  and  special  guests  will  be 
seated  in  front  of  the  Speaker. 

The  Chief  Justice  and  Associate  Justices 
of  the  Supreme  Court  will  occupy  seats 
next  to  the  President  and  ex-Presidents 
and  special  guests,  on  the  right  of  the 
Speaker. 

The  Cabinet  officers,  the  General  of  the 
Army  and  Admiral  of  the  Navy,  and  the 
officers  of  the  Army  and  Navy  who,  by 
name,  have  received  the  thanks  of  Con 
gress,  will  occupy  seats  on  the  left  of  the 
Speaker. 

The  Chief  Justice  and  Judges  of  the 
Court  of  Claims  and  the  Chief  Justice  and 
Associate  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  District  of  Columbia  will  occupy  seats 
directly  in  the  rear  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

The  Diplomatic  Corps  will  occupy  the 
front  row  of  seats. 

Ex-Vice-Presidents,  Senators,  and  ex- 


Senators  will  occupy  seats  on  the  second, 
third,  fourth,  and  fifth  rows,  on  east  side  of 
main  aisle. 

Representatives  will  occupy  seats  on 
west  side  of  main  aisle  and  in  rear  of  the 
Senators  on  east  side. 

Commissioners  of  the  District,  Govern 
ors  of  States  and  Territories,  Assistant 
Heads  of  Departments,  and  invited  guests 
will  occupy  seats  in  rear  of  Representa 
tives. 

The  Executive  Gallery  will  be  reserved 
exclusively  for  the  families  of  the  Supreme 
Court  and  the  families  of  the  Cabinet  and 
the  invited  guests  of  the  President.  Tickets 
thereto  will  be  delivered  to  the  Private 
Secretary  of  the  President. 

The  Diplomatic  Gallery  will  be  reserved 
exclusively  for  the  families  of  the  members 
of  the  Diplomatic  Corps.  Tickets  thereto 
will  be  delivered  to  the  Secretary  of  State. 

The  Reporters'  Gallery  will  be  reserved 


72 

exclusively  for  the  use  of  the  reporters  for 
the  Press.  Tickets  thereto  will  be  delivered 
to  the  Press  Committee. 

The  Official  Reporters  of  the  Senate  and 
of  the  House  will  occupy  the  Reporters 
desk  in  front  of  the  Clerk's  table. 

The  House  of  Representatives  will  be 
called  to  order  by  the  Speaker  at  twelve 
o'clock. 

The  Marine  Band  will  be  in  attendance. 

The  Senate  will  assemble  at  twelve 
o'clock,  and  immediately  after  prayer  will 
proceed  to  the  Hall  of  the  House  of 
Representatives. 

The  Diplomatic  Corps  will  meet  at  half 
past  eleven  o'clock  in  Representatives' 
Lobby,  and  be  conducted  by  the  Sergeant- 
at-Arms  of  the  House  to  the  seats  assigned 
to  them. 

The  President  of  the  Senate  will  occupy 
the  Speaker's  chair. 

The  Speaker  of  the  House  will  occupy 


73 

a  seat  at  the  left  of  the  President  of  the 
Senate. 

The  Chaplains  of  the  Senate  and  of  the 
House  will  occupy  seats  next  to  the  Pre 
siding  Officers  of  their  respective  Houses. 

The  Chairmen  of  the  Joint  Committee 
of  Arrangements  will  occupy  seats  at  the 
right  and  left  of  the  Orator,  and  next  to 
them  will  be  seated  the  Secretary  of  the 
Senate  and  the  Clerk  of  the  House. 

The  other  officers  of  the  Senate  and  of 
the  House  will  occupy  seats  on  the  floor 
at  the  right  and  the  left  of  the  Speaker's 
Platform. 

Prayer  will  be  offered  by  the  Rev.  F.  D, 
Power,  Chaplain  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives. 

The  Presiding  Officer  will  then  present 
the  Orator  of  the  Day. 

The  benediction  will  be  pronounced  by 
the  Rev.  J.  J.  Bullock,  Chaplain  of  the 
Senate. 


74 

By  reason  of  the  limited  capacity  of  the 
galleries  the  number  of  tickets  is  neces 
sarily  restricted,  and  will  be  distributed  as 
follows : 

To  each  Senator,  Representative,  and 
Delegate,  three  tickets. 

No  person  will  be  admitted  to  the 
Capitol  except  on  presentation  of  a  ticket, 
which  will  be  good  only  for  the  place 
indicated. 

The  Architect  of  the  Capitol  and    the 
Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  Senate  and  Ser- 
geant-at-Arms  of  the  House  are  charged 
with  the  execution  of  these  arrangements. 
JOHN  SHERMAN, 
WM.  McKiNLEY,  Jr., 

Chairmen  Joint  Committee. 


Proceedings  in  the  Hall  of  Representatives, 
Monday,  February  27,  1882. 

The  House  met  at  twelve  o'clock  m. 
Prayer  by  the  Chaplain,  Rev.  F.  D.  Power. 

The  SPEAKER.  This  day  has  been  dedi 
cated  by  the  action  of  the  two  Houses 
of  Congress  to  services  in  commemora 
tion  of  the  life  and  death  of  JAMES  ABRAM 
GARFIELD,  late  President  of  the  United 
States.  This  aclion  was  taken  through 
the  adoption  of  concurrent  resolutions  by 
the  unanimous  vote  of  the  two  Houses, 
presented  by  a  Selecl:  Joint  Committee  ap 
pointed  "to  consider  and  report  by  what 
token  of  respecl,  esteem,  and  affeclion  it 
may  be  proper  for  Congress  to  express  its 
and  the  nation's  deep  sensibility  over  the 
event  of  the  decease  of  our  late  President." 

75 


76 

This  House  is  now  assembled  and  ready 
to  perform  its  part  in  the  solemn  duty. 
The  Clerk  will  read  the  concurrent  resolu 
tions. 

The  Clerk  read  the  concurrent  resolu 
tions  of  December  21  and  February  i. 

The  Senate  met  at  twelve-  o'clock  m.; 
and,  after  the  following  prayer  by  the 
Chaplain,  Rev.  J.  J.  Bullock,  proceeded  to 
the  Hall  of  Representatives : 

Almighty  God,  our  Heavenly  Father, 
we  desire  to  look  up  to  Thee  for  Thy 
blessing  to  rest  upon  the  services  of  this 
day.  Sandify  to  us  the  Memorial  Serv 
ices  upon  which  we  are  about  to  attend. 
Deeply  impress  upon  our  minds  a  sense 
of  our  mortality  and  the  importance  of 
being  ever  ready  for  our  departure,  for  we 
know  not  the  day  nor  the  hour  when  we 
may  be  called  hence. 

Bless,   we   pray   Thee,    our   rulers,    the 


77 

President  of  the  United  States,  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  Senate,  the  Senators  and  Rep 
resentatives  in  Congress,  and  all  others  in 
authority.  Give  them  grace  and  wisdom 
for  the  right  discharge  of  their  important 
duties. 

God,  be  merciful  unto  us  and  bless  us. 
Cause  His  face  to  shine  upon  us,  and  give 
us  peace  in  our  day  and  generation,  and 
finally  save  us  all  in  Heaven.  We  ask  for 
Christ  our  Redeemer's  sake.  Amen. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore  of  the 
Senate  called  the  two  Houses  to  order. 

Rev.  F.  D.  Power,  Chaplain  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  offered  prayer, 
as  follows : 

O  Lord,  our  God,  we  thank  Thee  for  this 
hour  and  for  this  service.  We  thank  Thee 
for  a  great  life  given  to  this  Nation;  for 
its  genius  and  potencies;  for  its  example 


78 

and  memories;  for  its  immortality  and 
eternity.  May  this  Republic  never  forget 
its  dead. 

As  we  come  together  this  day  to  recall 
the  wisdom,  the  integrity,  the  statesman 
ship,  the  loyalty,  the  reverence  for  Thee 
and  Thy  word,  the  unselfish  love  for 
country  and  for  all  mankind,  wherewith 
Thou  didst  endow  Thy  servant  and  fit 
him  for  the  administration  of  the  affairs 
of  the  Government;  as  we  meditate  upon 
the  patience,  the  sweetness,  the  fortitude, 
the  faith,  the  quiet  resignation  to  Thy 
will  wherewith  Thou  didst  fit  him  for  his 
sore  trial;  as  we  remember  his  triumph 
and  our  sorrow,  grant  us  Thy  gracious 
benediction. 

We  bear,  during  this  Memorial  Service, 
our  Father,  before  Thee,  on  our  hearts,  his 
loved  ones  with  whom  we  weep.  Sustain, 
we  beseech  Thee,  the  mother  who  bore 
him.  May  the  peace  of  God  that  passeth 


79 

all  understanding  be  the  strength  and  the 
crown  of  her  spirit.  Be  very  merciful  to 
the  wife  in  her  present  separation  from  the 
husband  of  her  youth.  May  she  rest  in 
God,  and  may  she  find  such  sympathy  and 
joy  in  her  Saviour  as  the  world  cannot  give 
nor  take  away.  Be  a  father  to  the  children 
now  fatherless,  and  may  they  imitate  the 
virtues  of  their  illustrious  parent,  and  like 
him  be  useful  in  living  and  mourned  in 
dying.  May  the  youth  of  this  land  and 
of  all  lands  feel  the  power  of  his  example 
and  follow  in  his  footsteps.  May  those 
who  rule  among  us  and  among  men  every 
where  by  the  study  of  his  virtues  be  incited 
to  like  patriotism  and  piety. 

Now  we  ask  Thy  blessing  on  this  assem 
bly.  May  the  remembrance  of  this  great 
life  be  a  genuine  help  to  all  those  present 
and  that  greater  audience  waiting  without. 
Give  grace  and  utterance  to  Thy  servant 
who  shall  speak  to  us.  May  his  words 


8o 

be  wise  and  worthy  and  fitly  chosen,  like 
apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver. 

Remember  Thy  servant  before  Thee,  the 
President  of  the  United  States.  Preserve 
him  from  evil  influences  and  evil  men. 
May  truth  rest  upon  his  brow,  wisdom 
upon  his  lips,  justice  in  his  hands,  and 
grace  in  his  heart.  Bless  his  counselors, 
this  Congress  assembled,  our  magistrates 
and  judges,  our  Army  and  Navy,  our 
schools  and  churches,  our  whole  land  and 
all  the  inhabitants  thereof. 

May  we  keep  alive  in  us  the  faith  and 
virtue  of  those  who  have  passed  before. 
Give  peace  in  our  time.  Make  religion 
and  righteousness,  truth  and  justice,  knowl 
edge  and  freedom  to  abound  everywhere. 
May  Thy  name  be  glorified  and  Thy  king 
dom  rule  over  us  from  sea  to  sea. 

We  ask  it  all  reverently,  through  Jesus 
Christ,  our  Lord.  Amen. 


8i 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore  of  the  Sen 
ate  said :  Senators  and  Representatives, 
this  day  is  dedicated  by  Congress  for  me 
morial  services  upon  the  late  President, 
JAMES  A.  GARFIELD.  L  present  to  you 
Hon.  James  G.  Elaine,  who  has  been  fitly 
chosen  as  the  Orator  for  this  historical 
occasion. 

The  Memorial  Address  was  then  deliv 
ered  by  Mr.  Elaine. 

Upon  its  conclusion,  Rev.  J.  J.  Bullock, 
Chaplain  of  the  Senate,  pronounced  the 
benediction,  as  follows: 

May  the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all 
understanding,  keep  your  minds  and  hearts 
in  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God  and  His 
Son,  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord.  And  the  bless 
ing  of  God  Almighty,  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  rest  upon  and  remain 
with  you,  now  and  forevermore.  Amen. 


OI  I- 


82 

The  President  and  his  Cabinet,  the  Chief' 
Justice  and  Associate  Justices  of  the  Su 
preme  Court,  and  other  invited  guests  then 
retired  from  the  Hall;  after  which  the  Sen 
ate  returned  to  their  Chamber. 

The  House  having  been  called  to  order, 
Mr.   McKiNLEY  submitted   the   follow 
ing  resolutions;  which  were  unanimously 
adopted  by  the  House,  and,  on  the  suc 
ceeding  day,  by  the  Senate: 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  mid  House  of 
Representatives,  That  the  thanks  of  Con 
gress  be  presented  to  Hon.  James  G. 
Blaine,  for  the  appropriate  Memorial  Ad 
dress  delivered  by  him  on  the  life  and 
services  of  JAMES  ABRAM  GARFIELD,  late 
President  of  the  United  States,  in  the 
Representatives'  Hall,  before  both  Houses 
of  Congress  and  their  invited  guests,  on 
the  2yth  day  of  February,  1882;  and  that 


83 

he   be    requested    to    furnish   a   copy   for 
publication. 

Resolved,  That  the  Chairmen  of  the  Joint 
Committee  appointed  to  make  the  neces 
sary  arrangements  to  carry  into  effect  the 
resolutions  of  this  Congress  in  relation  to 
the  memorial  exercises  in  honor  of  JAMES 
ABRAM  GARFIELD  be  requested  to  commu 
nicate  to  Mr.  Elaine  the  foregoing  resolu 
tion,  receive  his  answer  thereto,  and  present 
the  same  to  both  Houses  of  Congress. 

Mr.  McKiNLEY.     I  now  offer  the  resolu 
tion  which  I  send  to  the  Clerk's  desk. 
The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That,  as  a  further  testimonial 
of  respect  to  the  deceased  President  of  the 
United  States,  the  House  do  now  adjourn. 

The  resolution  was  adopted;  and  there 
upon  (at  one  o'clock  and  fifty-five  minutes 
p.  m.)  the  House  adjourned. 


Correspondence. 

THE  CAPITOL, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C, 
February  28,  1882. 

SIR:  We  have  the  honor  to  present  to 
yflu  an  official  copy  of  two  concurrent  res 
olutions,  unanimously  passed  by  the  Sen 
ate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  on  the  2yth  instant,  express 
ing  the  thanks  of  Congress  for  the  appro 
priate  Memorial  Address  pronounced  by 
you  upon  the  Life  and  Services  of  JAMES 
ABRAM  GARFIELD,  late  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  directing  us  to  request 
from  you  a  copy  of  the  Address  for  publi 
cation. 

In  performing  this  agreeable  duty,  we 

85 


86 

avail  ourselves  of  the  opportunity  to  ex 
press  our  hearty  satisfaction  with  your 
very  able  Address,  and  beg  that  you  will 
be  pleased  to  furnish  a  copy  of  it  for  pub 
lication. 

We  have   the  honor  to  be,  with  great 
respedt,  your  obedient  servants, 
JOHN  SHERMAN, 
Chairman  on  the  part  of  the  Senate. 

WM.  McKiNLEY,  Jr., 
Chairman  on  the  part  of  the  House. 

To  the  Honorable 

JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 


WASHINGTON,  D.  C, 

March  2,  1882. 

GENTLEMEN:  With  profound  apprecia 
tion  of  the  honor  conferred  upon  me  by 
the  Resolution  of  Congress,  which  you 


8? 

transmit,  and  with  my  sincere  thanks  for 
your  own  kindly  expressions,  I  take  pleas 
ure  in  sending  herewith  a  copy  of  the 
Memorial  Address  for  publication. 

Very  respeclfully  and  sincerely, 

JAMES  G.  ELAINE. 
Hon.  JOHN  SHERMAN, 

Chairman  on  the  part  of  the  Senate. 
Hon.  WM.  McKiNLEY,  Jr., 

Chairman  on  the  part  of  the  House. 


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.' 


^ 


MAY   26  1943 


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